IT037 Technical Lead

Support•Greenbelt, MD

8h•Onsite

About The Position

This position is for a Technical Lead to provide strategic and operational leadership for the Integrated Modeling Computing Center (IMCC). The Lead serves as the primary operations manager, overseeing the workflows, and service delivery across the HPC systems, support services, user liaison, and operational/procurement functions. This role is responsible for ensuring the IMCC environment remains secure, performant, and aligned with the Earth science modeling needs of NASA. Ideal candidates will be seasoned professionals with deep expertise in high-performance computing, proven leadership experience in managing diverse technical teams, and the ability to bridge the gap between complex research requirements and reliable IT service delivery.

Requirements

Proven experience leading technical teams in a production-oriented environment.
Comprehensive understanding of supercomputing cluster architectures, parallel file systems (e.g., Lustre, IBM Spectrum Scale), workload schedulers (e.g., Slurm), and GPU-accelerated computing environments.
Expert-level knowledge of enterprise Linux environments, virtualization (e.g., OpenStack, Kubernetes), and the administration of enterprise services (monitoring, identity management, web infrastructure).
Strong background in implementing ITSM frameworks.
Proficiency in leveraging ticketing systems (e.g., Jira Service Management) and project management tools to track system availability, service metrics, and team performance.
Familiarity with government acquisition lifecycles, property management, and federal information security compliance requirements.
Deep insight into the scientific research lifecycle, including the compute and data challenges inherent in Earth science modeling, and the ability to advocate for user requirements to ensure research productivity.
Exceptional ability to communicate technical concepts to diverse audiences, draft formal documentation (SOWs, system architecture designs, status reports), and facilitate cross-functional collaboration.
A BS degree and 7+ years’ experience in relevant work areas.
US Citizenship required.
Ability to obtain and maintain a Tier 1 or Tier 2 Investigation through NASA.

Responsibilities

Manage, mentor, and lead a multidisciplinary team of systems administrators, support specialists, liaisons, and operations staff.
Foster a culture of excellence, professional development, and collaborative problem-solving.
Direct the day-to-day operations of the IMCC, ensuring system reliability, performance, and security across both the core HPC computing/storage clusters and the supporting infrastructure (Jira, Confluence, web services, etc.).
Define and execute the IMCC strategic roadmap, including capacity planning for future compute and storage requirements.
Oversee the allocation of resources and ensure service delivery aligns with organizational goals and scientific user needs.
Serve as a technical contact for IMCC and IMVI (Integrated Modeling Virtual Institute) leadership and other NASA stakeholders.
Translate complex technical status and risks into clear reporting for management and non-technical stakeholders.
Govern the end-to-end service delivery model, including the integration of help desk operations, account management, procurement lifecycles, and user outreach efforts.
Ensure that processes remain efficient, compliant with NASA regulations, and user-centric.
Oversee the security posture of the center, ensuring proactive vulnerability management, adherence to NASA compliance frameworks, and consistent patch cycles.
Manage major incident response and coordinate technical recovery strategies during service disruptions.
Provide high-level guidance on data management strategies, including the support of Data Management Plans (DMPs) and large-scale data migrations, ensuring the IMCC environment supports the evolving workflows of the user community.